Daily Record Financial News &
Friday, January 29, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 055 • One Section
Growing residential building program
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
It’ s official: Wawa’ s coming
$140,000 in grants boost UNF’s efforts
Convenience store expects up to 25 Jacksonville sites By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor Wawa Inc. has one site under contract and several more in review for its entrance into Northeast Florida with five or six stores — and expects 20-25 over time. “We are all in for our efforts in Jacksonville,” Wawa Regional Real Estate Manager Brian Duke said Thursday. Wawa is the popular Pennsylvaniabased convenience store and gas station chain that launched its Florida presence in July 2012 in Central Florida. It has opened 87 locations in the state at a pace of one every two weeks, Duke said. At an estimated minimum $5 million capital investment for each store, not counting the cost of real estate, Wawa’s initial Northeast Florida investment is at least $25 million to $30 million. Each Wawa store hires 40-50 full- and part-time employees, so the initial area wave would create up to 300 jobs. Duke said the opening date for the first Northeast Florida stores hasn’t been determined. Construction takes up to 10 months after land is secured and permits are issued. That indicates Wawa’s first Northeast
“
“
Michael Godoy helped design a 140-acre subdivision in Fredericks, Md., this month. Not one that will be built. He was part of a University of North Florida student team that competed in a national construction management competition. Godoy wants to go into homebuilding. The competition, though, is one of the few lessons targeting residential construction he’ll have before he graduates in May. But, for students after Godoy, it will be different. The university received a grant This month to start a residential tract for its construction project management program. The National Association of Home Builders’ charitable foundation awarded the school $100,000 to Godoy develop the new tract, with a partial match of $40,000 from the Northeast Florida Builders Association. Only one school in the U.S. per year is selected by NAHB for the award, which is to be distributed over a four-year period. “It’s a big honor for us,” said Maleg Malek, chairman of UNF’s Department of Construction Management. Support from NEFBA, local industry leaders and UNF administration contributed to the success, he said. The grant means the college will be able to add two or three elective classes on residential construction. Today, UNF only offers one. UNF continued on Page A-3
Special to the Daily Record
By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer
Jacksonville provides a lot of opportunity to us. It’s a nice city that is open for business. Brian Duke Wawa regional real estate manager
Florida stores could open in 2017, although Duke would not venture an estimated month. “We are aggressively pursuing sites,” he said. Duke said the first sites have been identified in Duval and Clay counties and Wawa also is working on some locations in St. Johns County. The site under contract is in Duval. “We think Jacksonville will end up with 20-25 stores over time,” Duke said, but did not have a timeframe for that. Wawa and its consulting team have been meeting with city staff and permitting officials “and getting control of our property,”
Duke said. They also are meeting with elected officials in the three counties. He declined to identify his team of consultants without clearing it with them. Duke also declined to identify sites, but described Wawa’s preferred locations as 2-acre corner sites at what it considers the best intersections with traffic lights and high traffic counts. The privately held company operates a 24-hour business “so we rely on heavy traffic,” he said. Wawa leases or buys its property and works with preferred developer partners. Mathis continued on Page A-2
Ex-One Spark staff members open The Refoundery Company’s mission is to help entrepreneurs
Lorrae Famiglietti, left, and Gabby Staton have launched The Refoundery, a consulting firm for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Public
legal notices begin on page
A-9
Photo by Max Marbut
By Max Marbut Staff Writer Sometimes, what motivates someone to start their own business is an unplanned change in employment. It happened to thousands of Americans during the recession that began in 2007. It happened Jan. 12 to Lorrae Famiglietti and Gabby Staton. They resigned from One Spark the day after it was announced that festival co-founder and CEO Elton Rivas was asked to resign. Famiglietti was One Spark’s director of product management, Web and event operations. Staton was director of operations and experience.
On Jan. 13, “We went out for a beer and talked about what we wanted to do next,” said Staton. While admittedly neither has started or operated a small business on their own, they decided to use the One Spark experience to their advantage. While with One Spark, they met hundreds of entrepreneurs who either had started a business or wanted to start a business. Most asked the same questions and had the same needs to build their ideas. “It’s communication with customers that helps a business survive and grow,” Famiglietti said. Within a few days, they established a consulting firm that specializes in “modernizing and
Published
for
26,855
updating the operations and customer experience strategies of new and existing small businesses to enhance customer engagement,” according to a news release. Deciding what to call the new venture didn’t take very long, said Staton. After about 20 minutes at a white board throwing out nouns and adjectives, they settled on “The Refoundery.” “We’re working with founders and ‘re’ references new direction,” said Famiglietti. There’s a particular focus on how entrepreneurs can best use the Internet and social media. “It’s a constantly changing environment,” said Staton. One of the traits they noticed Refoundery continued on Page A-3
consecutive weekdays